Surprising Benefits of Sex Slideshow Pictures Take the Yeast Infection Quiz What's Causing Your Pelvic Pain Slideshow

Medical Author:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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Medical Editor:

Mary Nettleman, MD, MS, MACP

Mary Nettleman, MD, MS, MACP

Mary D. Nettleman, MD, MS, MACP is the Chair of the Department of Medicine at Michigan State University. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt Medical School, and completed her residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Indiana University.

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When to Seek Medical Care

You should seek medical care any time if you have pain. Although vaginal infections may cause unpleasant itching, they should not cause pain.

Call for an appointment with your health care practitioner if this is the first time that vaginal yeast infection symptoms have occurred, or if you are unsure if you have a yeast infection. (If you are sure that you have a yeast infection, you can treat the disorder with over-the-counter medications.) But if your symptoms do not respond to one course of over-the-counter medications, you may not have a yeast infection.

• Vaginal yeast infections, although uncomfortable, are usually not life-threatening. You should see your health care provider. In addition, seek care for any of the following:
  • Foul-smelling or yellow vaginal discharge
    
    
  • Any stomach or back pain
    
    
  • Vomiting or fevers
    
    
  • If symptoms return within two months
  
  
  
• Other pelvic conditions with symptoms similar to vaginal yeast infections need to be checked by a health care practitioner in a hospital's emergency department. Seek medical care if the following conditions develop:
  
  
  • If you have vaginal discharge associated with fever, vomiting, and abdominal pain or if you have vaginal discharge accompanied by vaginal bleeding that is not a normal menstrual period, you may go to a hospital's emergency department.
    
    
  • Your symptoms have not improved in three days, a large amount of vaginal discharge is seen, or if initial symptoms worsen.
    
    
  • You have greenish or large amounts of discharge or fever.
    
    
  • You have been taking antifungal medications for a yeast infection and you develop yellow skin, yellow eyes (the white part is yellow), or pale stools.
    
    
  • Lesions or rash develop elsewhere (tender, red, pus-filled bumps, which can spread to the thighs and anus).
    
    
  • Dizziness develops.